Day 3 Managing yourself

Firstly: hurray, I managed to pick up the books I've been waiting for! I called at Slaithwaite sorting office to collect Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky, and Everything is Miscellaneous - The power of the new digital disorder by David Weinberger, before setting off for Cliffe House. A very pleasant autumnal morning drive this morning.

Tom started off by identifying some points for guidance:

• What am I supposed to do?
• How do I plan it?
• How well am I doing it?
• What do I do if things change?
• Have SMART objectives
• Time & Priority management
• Monitoring
• Flexibility

We discussed setting objectives in an organised way using the SMART model:
1. Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve.
2. Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not.
3. Achievable - Are the objectives you set achievable and attainable?
4. Realistic – Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?
5. Timely – When do you want to achieve the set objectives?

We discussed the question "How can we make this a better tree?" which demonstrated that we needed to define the terms (eg what is meant by 'better') to clarify the objective. After this we thought about our individual roles and how we could apply SMART objectives to them.

Note: On large projects, build in milestones - each milestone is an objective.

Time Wasters
We discussed issues that may affect productivity such as process issues (are they engineered to be efficient?) and personal time wasters (including tiredness, lack of focus, fatigue). Developing self awareness can guide to the development of a personal strategy to aid efficiency and job satisfaction.

Moving on to the difference between urgent and important, Tom introduced us to a chart on which to plot tasks; I remembered this from when I did the Time & Priority Management course with Martin. (I turned up late to the first day of this course, and had to postpone the second day!).

Some of the qualities of a good team leader/manager were identified as:
organised, motivated, enthusiastic, decisive, supportive, approachable, communicative, consistent, understanding and able to get equal input from all members of staff (e.g. in team meetings). We were told to bear in mind that some people were naturally quiet and do not have a lot to say.

We moved on to do an interesting practical excercise in the analysis of a problem from a member of staff. This involved listening to an actual problem and separating the facts from emotion and discovering what the intentions of the person making the complaint were likely to be. A tricky process which will require some practice, I think.

Broke for lunch, had a stroll around the grounds and a read of Clay Shirky.

The afternoon was all about stress and its effects on the individual and some techniques for dealing with stress. I'm not going to write much more that this about it here as I'm trying to keep this short. An important thing to bear in mind when dealing with a member of staff who has 'lost it' is to remember that you will not always be in possession of all the facts that have lead up to the incident. This was demonstrated through the story of Candida's unfortunate run of accidents resulting in her 'exploding' at a paramedic.